Salomon Rondon had quite an impact in his lone season at Newcastle. He quickly became a fan darling through his hard work and engaging nature.
The 30-year-old made 33 appearances last season, scoring 12 goals while adding 7 assists. It was enough to earn him the player of the season.
George Caulkin interviewed our former number nine for the Athletic. During the extensive interview, Rondon expressed several times how much he enjoyed his time on Tyneside.
This is what he said about playing in front of the Newcastle fans:
“Sometimes it’s like they celebrate tackles more than goals. The fans push you.
“If the ball is flying towards the line, you have to run, try to take it and play. That’s my nature.
“Everything for me there was really fantastic. I just felt, ‘this is my place’.”
Rondon certainly gave his all when on the pitch for Newcastle. He recounted what he was told by another former striker when first joining Newcastle:
“When I first arrived, I received a message from Tino Asprilla.
“He said, ‘Maybe you’ll score or maybe you won’t. If you score, that’s good, because a striker lives for goals, but if not, my friend … run, tackle, fight.’ That’s what I did. That’s the reason I loved it so much.”
Rondon played his target man role to perfection last season. Unfortunately, things didn’t work out for him to come back.
Rondon has fond memories of his time with Newcastle and even calls it the best year of his career:
“To be honest, last season was the best I’ve ever had.
“Not just because I scored goals, but because everything around me was so right, from the school of my children, to the city, the people, my family being happy.
“I was working really hard in every training session to be in the team and I did everything properly for that. I was playing. Everything was perfect.”
Last season, it all came together for Salomon, who had struggled to score goals in the Premier League for West Brom. Many fans have great memories of the Venezuelan in the black and white stripes.
After this article was published, Salomon sent out the following tweet to George Caulkin expressing the same sentiment.
Thank you for the visit @GeorgeCaulkin & @TheAthleticUK. I enjoyed the chat and bringing back some great memories. https://t.co/F8BExwAF93
— Salomón Rondón (@salorondon23) February 20, 2020
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44 comments so far
lesh
Feb 20, 2020 at 1:26 PM
Comment #41IrishRob
You’re very unfair on Bruce. His first few games presented him with a set of players that were so well drilled, he couldn’t get them to play the way he wanted them to.
He seems to have undrilled them now and they’re presumably playing the way he wants them to….. but now they’re hemorrhaging goals.
What’s he expected to do, blame Rafa?
Big Bruce Stars.
Feb 20, 2020 at 1:31 PM
Comment #42Wow. Nugget Degrees being handed out now are they?
So Rondon is only chirping up and making nuisance inferences his season under Rafa was great etc because his career has stopped in its tracks due to the suspension of the Chinese league?
So you reckon they have stopped paying his contracted wages because they cleverly inserted a Coronavirus Indemnity Clause in there? You reckon they won’t stump up on his “Last Payday”?
Wow. The utter tripe that pumps up out of the ground here. This one even stopped me ridiculing Jibs assertion that Ashley is beautifying NUFC for sale ha ha that took some doing!
IrishRob
Feb 20, 2020 at 1:38 PM
Comment #43No Lesh I’m really not. I supported Bruce for a long time and still do to an extent because at the end of the day hes our manager. But this is a far far better team than this. They just dont know how to play because bruce doesnt do anything for them.
People love playing under a manager like Bruce because it means they have more freedom and less responsibility. That’s the only reason ppl like playing under him. Less responsibility and less pressure.
But the more they play the more I realise it’s the same plan since day one, nothing changes because he just doesnt know how to. He doesnt know how to teach them anything.
Munster Mag
Feb 20, 2020 at 9:26 PM
Comment #44Rob, top 6 under Rafa? Maybe, probably not, largely due to underspending. But he didn’t move napoli to the next level, they failed to get in the CL and the fans were sick of him. I posted an article from a UK newspaper who used the word ‘disaster’ I think. The next manager immediately improved them, Sarri I think. He hasn’t moved the Chinese team further either, not yet anyway.